Public health: Is an ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure?

The Victorian Healthcare Association (VHA), together with Nous Group, held a very special member event in Melbourne on Friday 22 September.

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic put preventative healthcare on centre stage for all Australians. However, as the pandemic moves towards an endemic, healthcare providers and governments across the country are grappling with their approach to public and preventative health. They are considering the often-debated questions like:

Should we be investing more or less in public preventative healthcare?

How do we measure the effectiveness of preventative health programs?

How can you energise the public, other healthcare providers and the government about public and preventative health care?

What, if any, are the downsides of focusing on public and preventative healthcare?

To delve deeper into these topics, Dr Paul Eleftheriou, Principal at Nous Group, led a thought-provoking panel discussion on the significance of preventative health with our panel of experts:

Dr Sandro Demaio, Chief Executive Officer, VicHealth
Professor Anna Peeters, Professor of Epidemiology and Equity in Public Health & Director of the Institute for Health, Deakin University, and
Dr Nadia Chaves, Infectious Diseases Specialist, cohealth.

Following the panel discussion, in small groups, our healthcare leaders identified key strategic priorities for change and where the blockers are so we can be articulate and share the outputs with key policy makers.